Sandia National Laboratories is advancing efforts to improve electric vehicle (EV) battery safety by detecting failures earlier, providing critical warning time to vehicle occupants before potentially dangerous incidents occur.
While existing systems in EVs monitor battery performance issues, they often fail to prioritize imminent safety risks.
“The nature of battery fires can vary widely, depending on the failure mode. Some batteries self-heat for hours, while others are abrupt and aggressive,” said Alex Bates, a member of Sandia’s battery safety group. “The battery starts heating uncontrollably, ultimately resulting in a fire.”
Current battery management systems measure temperature and voltage, but these indicators often appear too late—when the battery is already overheating or catching fire.
“We’re focused on extending the warning time,” said Loraine Torres-Castro, Sandia’s battery safety lead. “Our aim is for the diagnostic system to provide an early warning, allowing time to park safely and exit the vehicle.” Torres-Castro noted that the ultimate goal is to integrate the warning system directly into the car’s dashboard.
Advancing Battery Diagnostics
To achieve earlier detection, Torres-Castro and her team have been testing commercially available diagnostic tools on single cells and battery packs at Sandia’s Battery Abuse Testing Laboratory (BATLab).
“Our objective is to benchmark commercially available solutions for different failures that exhibit varying responses and require tailored diagnostics,” Torres-Castro explained. “One size does not fit all. We seek to identify specific tools that can provide early warnings for particular failure conditions, battery chemistries, and cell engineering.”
Sandia’s multidisciplinary expertise in material science, electrochemistry, and engineering positions it uniquely to address these challenges.
“We have broad expertise on our team,” Torres-Castro said. “We understand material science, electrochemistry, engineering and, most importantly, how and why batteries fail.”
Industry Attention and Broader Implications
Sandia’s research, published earlier this year in the Journal of the Electrochemical Society, has sparked significant interest.
“It’s important work. Industry is interested in this space. It’s still wide open,” Bates said. “This manuscript has largely started the conversation, or at least pushed it to the forefront of battery safety for electric vehicles.”
The paper not only highlights failure detection techniques but also explores potential applications beyond EV batteries.
“We’re working with an organization in South Korea to evaluate the potential use of this technique in grid energy storage systems. We’re talking about large batteries,” Torres-Castro said.
Future Directions
Looking ahead, Sandia is focused on refining machine learning algorithms to enhance diagnostic accuracy while minimizing false positives.
“The next phase is understanding the limitations and applying machine learning algorithms to datasets,” Bates said. “We need other methods to examine the signal and ensure that it’s fast, accurate, and not a false positive.”
Sandia is also advancing sensor technologies that could go beyond issuing warnings to activating mitigation measures.
“These tools can also activate mitigation measures. For instance, upon receiving a warning, the system could trigger the thermal management system of the battery to start cooling it down,” Torres-Castro said.
Upcoming work includes testing EV battery packs to evaluate diagnostic capabilities and identify improvements.
“It’s very exciting to be at the forefront of practical battery safety, where our work will extend beyond the lab,” Torres-Castro said.
Bates added, “We’re always excited about the science.”
For more information about Sandia National Laboratories and their BATLab research, please click here.
Source/Photo Credit: Sandia National Laboratories
About Sandia National Laboratories
Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-mission laboratory operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. Sandia Labs has major research and development responsibilities in nuclear deterrence, global security, defense, energy technologies, and economic competitiveness, with main facilities in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Livermore, California.
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